


Captured

by Haru D Nae (Anaelita)



Series: Around the Grand Line [23]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst with a Fluffy Ending :D, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Cute Kids, Deal With It, Fluff and Angst, Haki (One Piece), Human Trafficking, Kinda, M/M, Pre-Canon, Teenagers sailing with the Pirate King, also Buggy is so cute at the end, anyway Roger will make sure none of it happens, don't worry it's just mentioned, he's just starting to acknowledge his feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 17:49:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13816329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anaelita/pseuds/Haru%20D%20Nae
Summary: Shanks is captured. Buggy gets worried. Roger and his crew go on a raid.





	1. Chapter 1

"You kids go get some supplies, here's a list", Rayleigh announces right after breakfast.

Shanks happily takes the list – always up for a stride ashore – and turns to his bunk mate, smiling. "Let's go !"

Buggy grunts unhappily – for once they didn't have any chores, he'd have preferred they weren't missioned out of the blue – but complies, shortly following.

The two cabin boys get off the ship and walk towards the nearest town in order to fulfill their duties. Soon enough the market is in view, and they speed up their pace a little to have some free time to explore afterwards, as usual.

Buggy gets bored at some point, he's not too fond of grocery shopping and he quickly finds himself wandering alone in hopes of finding anything of interest. After a short while though, he feels like exploring alone isn't that fun, so he decides to go find his friend back.

Shanks is nowhere to be seen.

Buggy went to every single stand on the market and most of the shops downtown, but he can't find his nakama and starts wondering where the hell his dumb redhead went again – _his ? Where did that come from ?_ – He decides to walk to the beach near the port, see if Shanks is swimming or doing something equally inept – not that swimming is dumb, Buggy was pretty good at it after all, before he became a Devil Fruit user.

Shanks is still nowhere to be seen, but his treasured straw hat lays on the beach.

Buggy catches the hat, takes a second to put two and two together, and runs to the Oro Jackson as fast as he can, groceries and supplies long forgotten. Once on the ship, he goes straight to the galley, where he learns the Captain is in his cabin. Then he runs across the deck to find Roger perusing through a pile of maps.

"What's up ki-" The Pirate King stops himself mid-sentence, narrows his eyes at the straw hat the blue-haired cabin boy is holding as if his life depends on it. "What happened ?"

"I don't know, I left him alone for a second in the market and he was gone, I looked everywhere but I found his hat on the beach, that's all I know. What do we do ?" Buggy kinda hopes he doesn't sound as worried as he is.

"I'll go ashore with Rayleigh and a few volunteers, we'll conduct a rapid search of the surroundings." A hum, then, "The rest of you get ready to set sail in case we have to hunt whoever captured Shanks, which is likely since you found this on the beach", Roger adds pointing at the straw hat.

"Will do !", Buggy exclaims and goes straight to the sails, ready to unfurl them.

The aforementioned little group comes back from their search a little before dusk, quite in sync with the rest of the crew in their preparations. Roger informs the crew about their findings : they learned about a small ship leaving earlier in the day transporting suspicious cages. Human traffickers. There's no time to waste so orders are given short and sharp, and executed immediately. The ship sets sail at sunset, everyone on the qui vive, but the night comes without any sort of good news.

By the time he has to go to sleep, Buggy is worried sick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> > "he can't find his nakama and starts wondering where the hell his dumb redhead went again – _his ? Where did that come from ?_ "
> 
> Originally "his" was a typo (meant to be "this"), but then I thought it was cute and my sister/beta/lovely otter [Kidha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kidha/pseuds/Kidha) thought so too then... ^_^ 


	2. Chapter 2

A full day passes without news or sight of Shanks or a ship or whatever.

After another restless night filled with nightmares, Buggy wakes up in the upper bunk bed. He climbed there during the night, the redhead's scent soothing him and allowing for a few hours of sleep. He stirs up a bit, disentangling himself from the warm covers, and gets down to prepare for breakfast. When he's done in the galley he goes straight to the lookout, hoping to spot the ship they've been looking since the day before yesterday. And he does, after a while, spot a speck on the sea, so he grabs the spyglass and feels his heart leap at the sight. "Ship at two o'clock !", he yells, "Ship at two o'clock !", twice for good measure. He really hopes it's the good one.

Then time passes by agonizingly slowly while they get to the foreign ship. Maneuvers are executed quickly but each second they take to approach is torture to everyone. They don't know yet if Shanks is on board. When the other ship gets closer the crew can distinguish a few cages onboard, large enough to contain about a dozen of people each. They really are human traffickers, the search might come to a close but the issue is still uncertain.

"Captain Roger !", a ragged voice yells from the other deck.

The Pirate King turns his head in direction of the sound, namely one of the cages, narrows his eyes and uses his Observation Haki to confirm his suspicions. Turning back to his crew, he announces in a dark voice, "First, we clean this ship from all the pest running onboard, then we free all the slaves."

Immediately, all the crew answers in unison, "Aye, Captain !" And the raid begins.

The cleansing doesn't last long. The crew is pumped up by faith in their Captain, anger at having one of them captured, and revolt at the idea that many other people had to suffer the same treatment. All in all, in half an hour tops, every single trafficker is floating somewhere around the ship, bleeding to death on the deck or below, or knocked out.

Rayleigh and a few others start opening the cages, starting with the one containing a beaten and crying red-haired teen.

Buggy launches himself at Shanks, tears prickling his eyes. "You dumb stupid idiot ! Don't you ever disappear again !", but even as he berates his friend, he holds him tight between his arms, concealing his watery eyes inside the crook of Shanks's neck, shivering.

While Shanks cries his heart out in Buggy's arms, Roger learns from some of the recently freed slaves that the traffickers were planning on selling everyone to Tenryuubitos in visit at some nearby island. Roger decides to burn the ship and take the other enslaved people aboard his ship until the next island.

At last aboard the Oro Jackson, Shanks explains he was tricked by a false fortune teller, inviting him into his shop only to drag him to the traffickers. He says he's hurt but not too much – Crocus still found a cracked rib and nasty bruises all over the teenager –, he was worried sick but he's glad the others found him.

At night when the cabin boys go to their shared bunk, Buggy helps Shanks into his own bed. "Come on, yours is up there so you're gonna get hurt again."

"Sure, thanks", a surprised redhead answers before sliding into Buggy's bunk bed.

The younger teen cautiously inserts himself next to his friend, careful not to hurt him. He grabs Shanks's arm and puts it over his waist, wordlessly dragging the other into a warm hug.

"I'm here", the redhead says as if to comfort him.

Buggy grunts then mumbles, "Then don't leave."

"I didn't want to."

"Still."

They stay still and silent for a while before Shanks adds, "You left me alone at the market."

"And I looked everywhere for you afterwards, I was so worried", Buggy admits.

Shanks tightens his embrace just a bit, "I'm sorry."

The blue-haired teen looks up into Shanks's eyes, "Just... be careful, y'know ?"

The redhead whispers a simple "I will", before be leans down to capture Buggy's mouth.

Buggy isn't surprised and for once, was actually kinda looking forward to it. He answers enthusiastically, even daring to tongue at Shanks's lip, who melts into his arms.

Breathless and flushed red all the way to his ears, Shanks mumbles, "Thanks for coming after me."

Buggy blushes and hides his head against the older teen's chest. "S'okay, we're nakama."

"Nakama, yeah."

In the privacy of his own head, Buggy idly thinks, _maybe more than nakama. I don't care... as long as we're together._


End file.
